Changes from Starcraft II
Starbow is based on Brood War fundamentals, but uses SC2 UI mechanics such as unlimited selection, multiple building selection, worker rally, smart casting, etc... =Fundamentals= High Ground Advantage *Units attacking uphill from the low ground have a have a 50% miss chance (except for melee units). Note that the Lurker's spikes count as Melee so it's attack never misses. The Reaver attack is also unaffected, even though it has to travel through ramps to strike units on the high ground. The Siege Tank, having splash damage, can still damage units even when missing because the way missing works is that the the attack actually undershoots (lands before the correct unit). ** This makes high ground much more important even in the late game (while high ground in SC2 is almost nullified as soon as there are flying units). This in return makes terrain and positioning more important. *** Some units, such as Spider Mines, Lurkers, Siege Tanks, Reavers become even more fearful if placed on top of Ramps because of the high ground advantage. * Units attacking from the high ground become visible for some seconds. ** This makes high ground less all-or-nothing. Ramps * On a related note all small ramps in Starbow have doodads placed at the corners to slow units passing through them. ** This makes it possible to defend ramps with low numbers of Lukers (as low as 2) against large groups of Marines and Medics. ** This also makes it possible to block ramps against small forces by morphing Hydralisks to Lurkers in the right spot. Pathing * Units spread more while moving and clump a lot less. Moving units tend to form lines (instead of balls). This resembles how BW units moved. ** One of the ways this is accomplished is by increasing the size of the "Magic Box". This means that larger groups of units can keep their relative positions while moving in formation if microed properly. Damage System * All units are either Light, Medium or Armored. * There are only three types of damage that an attack can have: ** Normal: deals 100% damage vs all units (minus armor) ** Explosive: deals 100% vs armored units, 75% vs medium units, and 50% vs light units. ** Concussive: deals 100% vs light units, 50% vs medium units, and 25% vs armored units. Protoss Shields * On a related note, protoss shields always take 100% Damage from all attack types. * Protoss shields always regenerate 1 Shield per Second, even during battle (there is no 10 second delay before shield generation starts). Note that the Shield regeneration speed is slower compared to SC2; in SC2 shields regenerate 2 points per second. Economy * Bases normally have at most 1 Vespene Geysers. Workers return 8 gas for every trip. ** A single Starbow Vespene Geyser gives about the same amount of gas per minute as 2 SC2 vespene geysers. ** 3 workers per geyser is still the optimal amount. ** Minerals only expansions are pretty common. * Mineral patches similarly give 8 minerals per trip. * The mining speed and worker AI has been altered so that the first worker on a patch is more efficient than the second worker http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/sc2-maps/471776-mod-double-harvesting-better-saturation-curve . This means that it's possible to increase the mining speed by expanding without making additional workers by spreading the existing workers up to the point where there is a mineral patch per worker. ** This in turn means that there is an economic incentive to taking up to 6 bases even with just 66 workers: 6*3 = 18 workers on vespene geysers, 6*8 = 48 workers on a single mineral patch each (8 being the normal number of patches per base). ** One of the ways the AI has been altered is that, like in BW, workers queue on a single mineral patch only if there are no free minerals patches near; instead of waiting some seconds like in SC2, workers will immediately move to a temporarily "free" patch near, without waiting for a worker that was coming back to it after returning the minerals to the Main structure. =Macro Mechanics= =Buildings and Tech Tree= =Units= Original Units Protoss *Sentinel *Void Relic Terran *Merc Zerg *Swarm Lord Units not in Starcraft II Protoss *Dragoon *Dark Archon *Reaver *Scout *Corsair *Arbiter Terran *Medic *Firebat *Vulture *Goliath *Dropship *Wraith *Science Vessel Zerg *Guardian *Devourer *Scourge *Defiler Units in Starcraft II Units which exist both in Starbow in Starcraft II are often pretty different from each other. Protoss *Probe *Zealot *High Templar *Dark Templar *Archon *Observer *Warp Prism *Carrier Terran *SCV *Marine *Ghost *Siege Tank *Viking *Battlecruiser Zerg *Drone *Overlord *Queen *Zergling *Hydralisk *Lurker *Mutalisk *Viper *Ultralisk References Category:Overviews